A severe winter and wet spring significantly reduced Minnesota’s pheasant population.

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the pheasant population index declined 64 percent from 2010 and is 71 percent below the 10-year average.

“I’m tremendously disappointed, but not surprised,” said Sue Olson, president of the Mower County Pheasants Forever chapter. Though Olson lives in a rural area near Brownsdale where pheasants can sometimes be seen, she hasn’t seen one in that area in about a year.

A second consecutive severe winter, cold, wet weather during the April to June nesting period and a loss of nearly 120,000 acres of grass habitat enrolled in farm programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program since 2007 severely reduced the numbers.

Olson recalls several years ago when ice storms throughout January and February didn’t allow the pheasants to burrow for cover. Yet DNR workers compare 2011 to a decade ago.

“We expect hunters to harvest a similar number of birds in 2011 as they did in 2001, which was another year with a severe winter followed by a cold, wet spring,” said Kurt Haroldson, a wildlife biologist for the DNR’s Farmland Wildlife Population and Research Group in Madelia.

Haroldson noted survey results indicated an unusually low ratio of hens to roosters. This suggests hen mortality was high, or hens were nesting or caring for young broods during the survey.

However, pheasant populations can rebound quickly with good habitat, mild winters and favorable spring nesting conditions. Olson said it usually takes about two years of mild conditions for numbers to increase.

Yet Minnesota is not the only state to see pheasant index declines. Wildlife officials in South Dakota reported a 46 percent population index decline. North Dakota’s spring population survey showed a decline, too.

The pheasant population estimate is part of the DNR’s annual roadside wildlife survey. The survey summarizes roadside counts of pheasants, gray partridge, cottontail rabbits, white-tailed jackrabbits and other wildlife observed early mornings during the first half of August throughout Minnesota’s farmland region.

Haroldson said the most important habitat for pheasants is undisturbed grassland during the nesting season. Those areas account for about six percent of the state’s pheasant range. Farmland retirement programs such as CRP, Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, Reinvest in Minnesota and Wetlands Reserve Program make up the largest portion of protected grasslands in the state.

High land rental rates and competing uses for farmland diminish the economic attractiveness of farmland conservation programs. During the next three years, contracts for 550,000 acres of CRP lands are scheduled to expire. If not re-enrolled, this would reduce CRP acres in Minnesota by 36 percent.

To help offset continued habitat loss, the DNR has accelerated acquisition of Wildlife Management Areas in the farmland region of Minnesota. DNR also supports habitat conservation on private lands by working with a variety of partners in the Farm Bill Assistance Partnership and Working Lands Initiative. Also, nearly 10,000 acres of private property will be open to public hunting through the state’s new Walk-In Access program. Locally, Pheasants Forever is trying to do its part, too. The group is still trying to add more acreage for wildlife management areas near Austin. One project includes the acquisition of 160 acres outside of town for wildlife refuge.

Among other animals observed in the roadside counts, the gray partridge index was similar to last year but 75 percent below the 10-year average. The cottontail rabbit index was also below the 10-year and long-term average. The jackrabbit index was 96 percent below the long-term average. The mourning dove index was 26 percent below last year and 29 percent below the 10-year average.

The 2011 August Roadside Report and pheasant hunting prospects map can be viewed at mndnr.gov/hunting/ pheasant.